The catch up game continues! October is typically one of our busiest months of the year. This year was a little more low key than usual... no big trips or events, but we still managed to fit a lot in.

I started the month off with a lot of peg painting. I love all the different requests I get from customers. 

I took lots and lots and lots and lots of photos of Shark Bait...

KJ sent me the green sand we "collected" when I visited her in August and the hibiscus I was given as a gift when Shark Bait was born had various beautiful blossoms throughout the month.

The weather was amazing, so the boys and I spent lots of time outside. Our many walks to the park were a highlight of the month, especially the ones that ended with us arriving home just as a rainstorm started. Man Cub and I would then sit in the garage with the door open and watch the rain. I could really use a good rainstorm right about now.

More often than not, Man Cub's dinosaurs and other plastic toys would accompany us to the park. Sometimes they would end up being played with in the sand, and sometimes they would keep me company on the bench, watching Man Cub play.

I finally fit into a pair of non-maternity pants and excitedly wore them to a church activity. And when I walked in, my friend Cindy and I were dressed exactly alike. We both got a kick out of that. 

I painted a really special peg project in honour of one of my dear friend's 40th birthday. I had photographed their family the Christmas before, so I took one of their family portraits and turned it into a peg shadow box. I absolutely love how it all came together.

Man Cub slept until 10am one morning (at the time, he was typically getting up around 5:30am!) When he woke up, his diaper was completely dry and he immediately went into the bathroom and used the potty. These were both pretty major accomplishments so I let him have chocolate pie for breakfast. Mom of the year.

Beebs had to make "something you wear" for her monthly project in October. I'm not sure how we ended up with this jellyfish hat, but we are both pretty proud of our handiwork. 

The weekend of October 18th marked one year since one of the most epic weekends of my life... One year since the weekend where I reached my lowest weight since having children one day, ran and PRed at my second half marathon the next day, and got a positive pregnancy test on the third day.

One year later, things looked a little different for the crew I did the Lake Powell half with... two of us had babies and the other two added lots of new racing bling and PRs to their collections. It was fun to be able to snap a picture of 3 of the 4 of us from that half marathon exactly one year later.

 It might seem logical to assume that my three year old decorated his brother's face during nap time... but no. This is the handy work of my 32 year old.

Snapped a cute picture of my girlies together as we walked to the grocery store for donuts one day. 

Shark Bait got lots of lovin' from his siblings... and sometimes the lovin' was a little too much perhaps. 

My mum sent me this photo of my grandfather, her dad. Does he look familiar? I'm thinking Shark Bait might have a little more of me in him than the rest of my wee ones, who tend to be little clones of their dad. 

Diapers, wipes, hairbows, grocery list, Glock. Yup. I've got everything! I contributed to Bruce being late for work one day and in his rush to leave the house, he forgot his gun. Which meant I had to run it to him. Which meant putting it in my diaper bag. I couldn't help but laugh as I was driving along and looked over at the contents of my diaper bag. Such is the life of a police wife. 

See... all kinds of fun and excitement in October. Nothing extra big or out of the ordinary, but lots of little things that made for a fun and busy month.

P52 Catch Up

It feels like I'm always playing catch up these days, and my P52 project is no exception. I haven't posted since week 8 and I was suppose to post week 15 last Sunday! So yeah- a little bit behind on things!

Confession time. I've actually missed two weeks of photos. I let it discourage me at first and I figured between missing weeks and not even being up to date on posting, maybe I would just quit. But I don't want to quit! The point of this was never to be a stressor, but rather a way to encourage myself to use my "big" camera and document some of the every day moments in our home. So, I'm continuing on, just without weeks 13 & 14. I'm going to post weeks 9, 10, 11, 12 and 15 and try to get back on track posting in a timely manner Ü

Week 9: Strength

When I think of strength, I think of Bruce Wayne. He deals with so much at work... he sees horrible things, then he comes home and leads us in family prayer, snuggles the baby as he sleeps, kisses owies and helps the girls do their hair. He handles the pressures of his job with grace and is still the warm and loving, funny and kind guy I fell in love with. So grateful to have such a strong man as the head of our family.

Week 10: Good Morning

A little Man Cub in the morning... he's not suppose to watch movies on Sundays, but this morning he snuck my phone and watched a little Mickey Mouse while eating his cereal with his Sunday shirt unbuttoned. I wanted to be reprimand him for taking my phone without asking and for watching a movie when he knows he is not suppose to, but he looked so cute and grown up that I decided to grab my camera instead of getting frustrated.

Week 11: Magic

This was the week of Sunshine's 9th birthday party, which was an American Girl doll brunch. For one of the activities, we introduced the girls to the magic of Polaroids. They thought it was so fun to pose with their dolls and then watch the picture develop before their eyes. Man Cub decided he wanted in on the magical action, so he grabbed his Cabbage Patch doll, Will, and the two of them posed for their own magic photo.

Week 12: Lazy

As is evident in this photo, we've been a little lazy about taking care of the weeds in our backyard lately. That has changed in the past few weeks as we prepare to have some get togethers in our yard, but for awhile there, the ground by the orchard was almost more green than the grass thanks to the abundance of weeds. Luckily, we have these cute little helpers who are more than happy to help us out and snack on a few weeds when they are free ranging. 

Week 15: Water

This little guy loves water... I am excited to take him swimming this summer, but for the moment, he is perfectly content to splash around in the tub. In the interest of real life, notice the dirty handprint in the upper left corner of the photo. That's courtesy of Man Cub. He quite literally is "noise with dirt on it". I imagine Shark Bait will be following in his footsteps sooner rather than later. Ü

Shark Bait | Eight Months Old

So I took this photo when Shark Bait turned eight months old... I've just been very slow about editing and posting it! But here it is... just a week before he turns nine months old and the count down to his first birthday begins. Insert ugly cry here.

Man Cub's 3 Year Portraits

I use to be really good about taking my kiddos out for birthday portrait sessions... now not so much. I figure I take plenty of portrait shots of them when we do family photos or travel, we don't necessarily need to go out and do dedicated sessions. However, when Man Cub turned 3, I knew I wanted to do some pictures of him with his best friend Yatee at Yatee's grandma's farm. Both boys love the farm and playing on all the farm equipment so it seemed like the perfect place to snap a few pictures to commemorate their third birthdays.

When Man Cub Turned 3

2015 was suppose to be our year of low key birthdays. Beebs had asked for a trip to Utah to celebrate her birthday, Sunshine did have a dessert bar after her baptism but her main birthday celebration was seeing a movie with two friends and for Man Cub, I planned a day at the zoo with his best friend, Yatee. Then, at the last minute, I decided to add a small birthday party to the line up since it was the first year he truly understood the excitement of birthdays and he had been talking about his for months. So, with just a few days to go before he turned 3, the girls and I pulled together a little surprise party with a few of his closest friends, some pizza and a water slide. It was still very low key but he loved it! 

Man Cub's actual birthday started out with a picture drawn by Beebs of the two of them playing together, donuts with candles in them and a few presents including several pairs of pajamas (as Man Cub never seems to have enough!) and a police car that he promptly destroyed within a few hours time. 

Then we headed to the zoo for a few hours with Grandpa, Aunt Brie and Asa, and Yatee and his mom. It was really warm at the zoo, so after looking at a few animals, we settled in and played at the splash pad before heading home. The stuffed monkey mascot for Beebs' kindergarten class was staying at our house for the weekend, so at Beebs' insistence, he tagged along to the zoo in hopes of meeting up with a few of his monkey friends. 

That night, Man Cub went to sleep a happy boy in his new Lightning McQueen pjs and he couldn't get enough of his new train track the girls gave him. 

The next day was his surprise party. He was excited to see all his friends and while he refused to go down the water slide, he enjoyed playing with water blasters and jumping in the paddling pool. He especially loved his cake that Barb and Papa Blas made for him, complete with a monster truck on top. 

We must have done things right- Man Cub loved his 3rd birthday and is anxiously waiting to turn 4.